The Move and Our Temporary Living

The move was crazy. Not bad, just crazy. I don’t think I have officially recovered, although my body finally relaxed about a week after we arrived here in California.

The last 10 days in NY were filled with 15 hour days: packing, cleaning, organizing what stuff was going to what state or into storage, and living our usual daily routine on top of that: laundry, dinner, playing/reading with kids, etc. We got it all finished though (I’d like to send a shout out to Patrick Bruder who was an instrumental helper in it all, and the guys that stopped by here and there to lend a hand loading boxes those last two days: THANK YOU SOO MUCH!!) We were checked out of our house on Sept 15 and caravanned to Lowell’s fams in VA. We arrived there around… 11 that evening I want to say. On The 16th, Lowell went to Norfolk with Uncle Joe, his parents, and little brother, Cy, and loaded all of our things into a storage unit, then later that evening, Patrick showed up with Lowell’s pick up (he drove it down from NY for us after he got off work that afternoon). Then Lowell spent most of Sautrday with Uncle Joe working on little things on the suburban before the long drive west. We went to Mass Saturday evening and left for Tennessee on Sunday morning after breakfast. We stopped in Franklin (Near Nashville) that night and stayed with the Atchley’s, (my godparents and lifelong friends). On Monday, we drove 2 hours, after lunch, to Jackson (half way between Nashville & Memphis) and stayed with my cousins that live there. On Tuesday we drove to Ft Worth, TX and stayed with our good friends, the Sipe’s. Spent all of Wednesday in Texas doing this and that: got our drivers licenses switched back, saw Lowell’s sister Celeste and her hubby, Zack, and their adorable baby, Abi, and just let the kids run around and be free from the car for a day. We loaded up and headed out again Thursday morning. Drove 11 hours to Lordsburg, NM and stayed in a hotel that had a pool for the kids to splash around in. Got up Friday, drove 3+ hours to Phoenix, stopped for lunch and gas, and drove until we arrived at my parents’ house at 4:30 that afternoon. We ended up losing our a/c compressor just outside of Palm Springs, but were close enough that driving with all the windows down wasn’t too “noisy” as Felicity liked putting it. Lowell also made three cutting boards during our move process, so when we got here, he had to finish sanding and whatnot so he could donate them to the St Michael’s Gala that we went to the following evening after our arrival. I pretty much was ready to collapse into my bed and not get up for a week after all that! ;)

Lowell started up school on Monday last week. We don’t get to see him every evening because even though San Diego is close, it isn’t. So it’s hard on him to make an almost 2 hour drive each way after getting up early and working long hours. Once his routine becomes a little more stable, we will figure out when we will see each other during the week in addition to the weekends that we are seeing him now. Our wonderful friends, the Perry’s, live near base down there, so he is able to stay with them. He had a long weekend this weekend for Columbus Day, so we look forward to a short week this week!

We are all staying in my parents converted garage, so I’ve turned it into a little cozy home within a home. I am in charge of making dinner 4 nights a week and we contribute 1 weeks worth of groceries a month. Lowell also has a “Honey Do” list to work on when he can. I’m also homeschooling my little sister, Gloria, Faith, and Felicity…and my little brother, Matthew. Felicity and Matthew really just hover and color pictures. Faith is a little more advanced than Gloria in the sense that she recognizes all her letters and knows their sounds, so Faith is more along for the ride at this point while Gloria is learning some basics We do flash cards, coloring pictures that start with appropriate letter, and tracing lines. In the next few weeks, they’ll start writing letters. Faith can write most of them already, but this is all formative stuff, like learning to follow direction, etc. so we’re having fun! Over all, we are contributing to daily life and everything is going smoothly. Everybody is happy and seems to be adjusting well.

I found an OB and met with him on Monday. They seem pretty nice, so I will probably stick it out with them. They are sending me off to a perinatologist for dealing with the diabetic side of the pregnancy and ultra sounds. I am not exactly thrilled about that, as I’ll be driving all over town 2-3 times a week pretty soon, but there is no way around it it seems. I continue to be blown away how difficult the medical world makes it to treat diabetic mothers. No wonder why they only have a few kids! I know that there are probably some who aren’t in tight control, but those of us that are really can be treated “normally” right? I’m actually thinking that what I had to go through in New York was easier – ha! :)

Anywho, we are alive and well in So Cal. That is the latest with us. Hope everything is going fabulously for you and your’s!!